Farm Bureau casts wide net for apple harvesters

October 1, 2013

Contact: Ken Nye, 517-323-5331

LANSING— A plea went out to farm labor contractors across the eastern U.S. today, looking for workers to fill out the harvest crews of Michigan's shorthanded apple growers. Hot off the press of Michigan Farm Bureau's (MFB) print shop, a batch of "help wanted" postcards are already headed to more than 300 registered farm labor contractors, mostly in the southeastern states of Florida and Georgia.

"Depending on what we hear back, and when, we might have to expand our search to other parts of the country," said Ken Nye, MFB's horticulture and forestry specialist. "We've got the next six weeks, give or take, to get this year's outstanding apple crop off the trees and into bins, to processors or fresh market retailers, or into storage."

A survey of growers begun last week by apple industry groups confirmed what had been feared and forecast since last summer—that seasonal workers are in short supply, threatening farmers' hopes for a thorough harvest of their fruit-laden trees. The situation is rooted in the weather-wrought devastation that meted out unprecedented losses to Michigan fruit farms in 2012. With little if any fruit to harvest here last year, seasonal workers sought work elsewhere, and in large part didn't return.

"We've been monitoring things throughout the year as best we could, as our labor-intensive vegetable and fruit crops matured and harvests progressed from one crop to the next," said Craig Anderson, who manages MFB's Agricultural Labor and Safety Services Department. "Unfortunately, when we're talking about seasonal workers—in a country where the political climate is increasingly hostile toward immigration—it's tough to get a bead on it. Solid, reliable data can be a slippery fish, and we can wind up where we are now: looking down the business end of a huge apple harvest without enough workers to pick them."

"Really we're just trying to get their attention—let them know that there are hundreds of well-paying jobs available right now in Michigan," Nye said. "It's a big ol' 'help wanted' sign—a direct appeal to a select group of people whose business it is to match available workers with available jobs."